Category Archives: Toys

A pacifier sometimes can really do wonders. However sometimes we need a small wonder, how to break the kid of using a pacifier. Here are ten small tricks, that should help you to get rid of „a small but undesirable problem“.

1. Make it tasting bad

As well as when breaking the habit of biting the nails, you can coat it with something unpleasant what a child does not like it can also help with breaking the habit of using a pacifier

2. Give it as a present or „sell it“

If you think a child can not comprehend this procedure, then giving it as a present or swap the pacifier for something else which the child longs for it can be the right trick that can terminate the pacifier addiction.

3. Make „a cold nose“

You are the parent and therefore you have the right to take away the pacifier from the child once and for all- at least theoretically. If you think the best thing for your child and also for your sanity is to say simply one day strong „No“, you have got the full right to that.

4. Take it away gradually

Perhaps all the present people will bear best gradual and sensitive taking away from the pacifier. The first successful step is to reduce using the pacifier only for particular time periods (evening falling asleep) or a place (bed…).

5. The sooner, the better

Small babies and also small children have their powerful means how to protest against their beloved habit, such as for example a pacifier. But when you break the habit sooner, than a child learns to manifest its repulsion in a verbal way or it will negotiate with you, you will save much time and energy, it will be easier for you and also for your child.

6. Damage it

For many parents it attested itself when they damaged the pacifier in order to it has fully damaged and stopped to be pleasant in child´s mouth. Somebody will pierce it and waits when it tears up, somebody will tear it up right to the handle. Safety note: if you try it, beware, not to damage the pacifier so that it will give off small particles that could choke the child or it would start to suffocate.

7. Give it to the pacifier fairy as a present

The Pacifier fairy is tiny, but powerful and it is the next kin of Tooth fairy. This magical character can help your child to come from the life with a pacifier to a free life without a pacifier. „When my little brother was two years old, we told him, that the Pacifier fairy needs his pacifier for small babies that do not have any pacifier. It worked wonderfully- he liked the idea very much.“ –L. „My daughter was three and a half years old when we played the game with her she gave up the pacifier thanks to this and without any tear. We put all her pacifiers into a bag and told her that the Pacifier fairy will bring her a toy she wishes to have instead of the pacifier. We prepared her for that several months and explained to her that the pacifiers are only for small babies and not for big girls. To our amazement she pushed out the bag with pacifiers herself in front of the entrance door. There was a beautiful toy instead of the bag in the morning, that she chose in advance. She has never mentioned the pacifier again.“

8. „Lose it“

When you look for furiously a lost pacifier next time again, stop. When it got lost, it is lost. Or you can lose it on purpose. Both possibilities are excellent solution for desperate parents.

9. Read about it

Storytelling and reading of stories is at the same time amazing time for smooching and cheering up child´s love to reading and books. By means of books you can „instigate“ your child towards behaviour you would like to see. It will help him also to learn new things, tackle with changes and various changeovers- as for example the end with the pacifier.

10. Leave it to Nature

Sometimes it is needed to forbid the pacifier out of health reasons:

– Children who do not use the pacifier, they have less problems with ear infections.

– If it seems that your child will have some problems with pronunciation, the pacifier can even worsen them.

– Long- lasting and obstinate using the pacifier can cause problems with teeth and oral cavity.

– On the contrary, some parents think, it is better not to be much involved in anything, and leave it up to a child, when it gives up the pacifier itself.

– Sometimes the child can have a strong need to comfort itself, so that when you take away the pacifier from it, it will find compensation quickly: it will suck its thumb, pull a blanket and suck it or it will find another „honey“ that will suck.

Just don’t neglect anything – that’s the motto of many parents of small children. There are several ways to develop your child’s skills and one of them is physical activity. But not everything truly benefits the child.

More and more mothers today are searching for anything they could do to help their child develop as best as possible. Hand in hand with that, there are more possibilities today – swimming, massages and different kinds of exercises. Also, the number of different clubs and Maternity Centers is growing. Enthusiastic mothers that often lack sufficient knowledge and skills usually organize such activities. So what should we look out for?

Is exercising necessary?

At first this sounds humorous. Is it really important to exercise with a baby or a child under 3 years of age? The process of physical development (in terms of turning over, sitting, standing…) happens on its own; on the basis of a loving relationship between parents and their child. A child loves his parents and imitates them, because he wants to be like them. That’s how he learns. He doesn’t learn to turn over because we turn him over or sit because we sit him up. On the contrary, if we do any movement for him, we can slow down his development. When a baby starts sitting up, he learns to work with his center of gravity; he seeks balance and receives feedback about him through – for example – his falls.

Our job is to create proper conditions for this development. If we try to intervene and try to speed up our child’s development, he may lose his motivation to discover his body and develop his skills. We could decrease his self-awareness and teach him to depend on people around him. For the rest of his life, even as an adult, he will be constantly looking for support in others rather than in himself. Therefore it’s good to do any movements with the child after we’re sure that he can do them himself. If he can’t turn around on his own yet, we should lay him on his tummy only if needed. Until a child can get up into a sitting position on his own, we shouldn’t sit him up. We also shouldn’t hold his hand while walking, until he can walk on his own without support.

Don’t try to speed up your child

If you lay a child on his tummy too early, he often tries to lift his head unnaturally using his back muscles. There is also more tension in the arms and legs of a child sleeping on his tummy rather then on his back. They often fix their position by putting their arms to the sides instead of having them in front of their eyes (which is important). It’s not true that babies need to exercise by lying on their tummy. Healthy babies that are left alone can turn on their tummy naturally and spontaneously at the same time as any other baby. Additionally, their laying position is clearly more confident. It’s also not true that we can support the proper development of the hips by laying a baby on his tummy. Yes, hips need to be at the right angle, but unless the legs aren’t wrongly fixed then the hips will assume this angle on their own. Furthermore, for the development of femur necks a baby needs movement, which creates friction and that stimulates ossification – that doesn’t happen while lying on the tummy.

When a child lies on his back, he learns to support himself with his scapula and his pelvic bones and gradually learns to control his body. He can watch his surroundings (and especially his mom) better this way; he can turn his head both ways and exercise his neck, head and back muscles. His limbs can freely move around and the baby gradually increases his range of motion in his joints. He is like a seed that is poking out his first sprout and growing his first leaves. After he waves his hands in front of his face, he realizes for the first time that those are his hands that he can control. Once he realizes that, he will start reaching for the world. This will the start up the important impulse to turn over on the tummy.

Let your child play

The second most important method of learning is play. A joyful game that a child initiated himself is the most harmonic way of developing motor skills in a child. Even work at home or in the garden can be considered a game or play. He develops his versatile motor skills much faster this way then through targeted exercise. A study, which measured the performances of 4-year olds in basic skills like running, throwing, jumping, etc. showed that children who were allowed to play outside everyday without supervision scored the best. It’s important to provide our children space in which they can explore and develop their own skills (like the possibility of climbing over, down, through, etc.)

We should be careful with targeting strengthening. Certain muscle groups could get out of balance, which could interfere with the development of the whole body.

Give your child space

The wishes and expectations of parents shouldn’t overwhelm the child. Some pre-school children don’t even have time to play because they have so many activities and responsibilities.

If we try to intervene and try to speed up our child’s development, he may lose his motivation to discover his body and develop his skills. We could decrease his self-awareness and teach him to depend on people around them. During free play, a child develops his imagination and creativity much more, as well as his appetite to explore and learn, the appetite to do and to change his surroundings.

This trend is affecting younger and younger children. Parents take their children swimming, exercising, singing and to many other places. We should choose a tolerable amount of activates for our child. During free play, a child develops his imagination and creativity much more, as well as his appetite to explore and learn, the appetite to do and to change his surroundings. During play with other children a child develops his communication skills, assertiveness and also the ability to help others and share. However, if the goal is to win, if competitiveness is encouraged, then the children are overtaken by aggression and rivalry.

Free movement is also much more important than developing the intellect using various tools, books and computers. Activities that don’t encourage movement can lead to much more than bad posture and movement problems. They also take away the children’s life strength for development and growing. Children that often watch TV (even if they are watching educational programs) and don’t move a lot are often pale and get sick a lot.

That leads us to another principle: don’t ever force a child into an activity. If he doesn’t want to participate in a game, its best if the parent plays alone. A child will probably join him sooner or later. If we force our child or put pressure on him he may start despising the activity all together. Even if it may not seem so, a child that is only watching others or is playing alone is still perceiving his surroundings and learning. Some children refuse to do anything, but then at home they repeat everything they heard or saw.

Rhythm

A child needs to experience rhythm. It gives him a sense of safety, peace, security, life strength and much more. Rhythm can be regularity or repetition of something familiar. For example, it could be beneficial to participate in an activity every Thursday. Rhythm is also inhaling and exhaling.

After an activity, a child should have time to take it in – a time for himself – during the day or in the middle of an exercise. A child that has an afterschool activity everyday can be very stressed. Similarly, if we change games and poems too much without giving our child time to exhale, it can lead to tension and overload. The lecture should flow as inhaling and exhaling, it should always have a similar structure and a ritual that signifies the beginning and end; the poems and games can be repeated…

A small child basically learns nothing of what we tell him. As we said before, he imitates us. He does so with other people he loves as well. That’s why the personality of the teacher is so important. Choose an activity for your child with your heart. The joy and laughter are just as important as the teacher’s expertise.

Parents often think that going to afterschool activities is also important because a child can hang around his peers. But that’s not the truth. A child under the age of three doesn’t really need to be in contact with other children. What is important is the contact between mothers (or fathers). Sharing of similar worries, exchanging information and inspiration, mutual support and understanding makes parents more confident and calm. The children can sense this calmness and then the „exercising“ becomes beneficial for them. The space for sharing, whether it is during a lecture or after it, should not be left out. The joy from the game, the meeting and life itself are also important.

Wallets, drawers and cooking pots come across as the biggest smash items to the infants. All sorts of ‘funky’ and ‘spooky’ mass-advertised so-called “the-best-toys-ever” that try to penetrate into the child’s playroom sometimes get green with envy losing their way to these greater hits. The babies love the price tag dangling from a soft toy and the keys. Even a mummy’s old dress might not be spared. If the baby is ambitious enough, anything can be endorsed as a toy.

Certainly, when their birthday or their saint’s day comes, we will buy them all those colorful, able-to-move and sound-eluding items because they wish for them, they desire them and we want to make them happy. However, what gets plentiful also gets mundane with time, becomes too boring to play with, and this prods us to buy new, awesome super-toys, which will perhaps finally provide a “quality” entertainment.

Nonetheless, if the kid is being passively entertained by a TV or a computer, nobody plays with him, nobody enhances his imagination, then perhaps he doesn’t even know what to do with all those awesome toys. In this case, the only manual possible are the advertisements. But these last only a short while and they do not bring too many creative ideas.

The infants’ hits

Do you also recall how you bought a mountain of rattling, rustling and sound-giving toys for your baby only to entertain him later on at a doctor’s with your keys, wallet or advertising flayers? Yes, small children are for many purposes attracted to the totally mundane daily necessary items – the mobil phone, the keys, the toys’ price tags, a wallet,the advertisement flayers,the drawers with laundry, a rubbish bin, the cooking pots, the sticks and the rustling wrappers. Once the infant stage is over, the most attractive items are often those in the hands of other children. Nonetheless, only a few infants would despise a play with cubes or a ball especially if an adult engages in the play too.

The undying construction games

Various types of Lego or other construction or building games never fail to entertain. These games enhance imagination, enforce creativity and improvisation and they support a space visualization. They last for several years and then new complementary pieces of building blocks can be purchased. Actually most toys to which something complementary can be bought or hand-made later on are very “grateful” and the children play with them for several years. New railways can be bought for trains and tunnels can be made too. Dresses and other accessories can be bought or stitched for dolls and stables can be obtained for the little animals.

The fluffy soft toys

A sloppy teddy bear appears in the memories of our childhood for most of us. Why is this so? Soft toys are pleasant, soft, pacifying and they sooth us. They convey a parents’ touch when in a bed at night or on a kindergarten camping trip, they smell of home and feel of tears of sadness or even an anger. Shortly, they share all the good and the bad with the children. You must have one hidden for yourself too, don’t you?

A child needs enough (but not too much) of quality stimuli for a proper healthy development. The most important factors for the development of proper speech are our voice, our speech, a warm approach, positive feedback, a calm environment and a feeling of security.

Every healthy child wants to talk. We lead by example and he will try to imitate us. That’s why we should talk to our children as much as possible. Our voice should be calm, warm and distinctive; with a natural intonation. An infant doesn’t care what we are saying, but how we are saying. He perceives our intonation, pace, timbre, the strength of our voice and rhythm.

Your Voice is the Most Important For Your Child´s Speech

The essential factor for the development of speech is the perception of rhythm. We should talk rhythmically to our child, read him rhymes and just overall make our words rhythmical. Don’t think about how good or bad your voice is, just try to be imaginative.

We should talk rhythmically and melodically during everyday activities such as bathing, dressing, while on a walk, while holding the baby, etc. It should be a regular, rhythmical ascending and descending of our voice on 2 or 3 tones (For example: Just-in is play-ing with his te-ddy bear).

We often talk rhythmically and melodically naturally without even realizing it. This is very important and that’s why a child should hear melodious speech as much as possible. Gradually, we should include children’s songs and rhymes.

Try not to replace your own voice with professional recordings of actors or singers. Our voice is the most important for our child and no other voice can replace it.

Background sounds

In order for the child to be able to recognize and differentiate the quality of sounds, it’s also necessary to offer him a quiet and calm environment. We adults often don’t even notice background sounds, but for children it’s harmful if the TV or music are on all the time.

Breastfeeding as practice

The muscles of the mouth that we need in order to articulate, primarily serve for sucking and swallowing purposes, the basis is quality muscle coordination. The main way for an infant to train this coordination is by eating.

At first, its breastfeeding, which is very important for an overall development of a child in many ways. Later it’s chewing, biting and drinking out of a cup. In order for a child to correctly use his mouth muscles, he has to experiment with them and discover them. That’s why it’s only natural, that he sticks his fingers and other object into his mouth. We should let our child do that, but ensure it is safe and hygienic.

Pacifier

If you give your child a pacifier, try to give it to him as little as possible. A long-term use of a pacifier can have an effect on jaw development and it prevents the child from talking. An active, satisfied, or a sleeping baby does not need a pacifier.

When a child starts teething, we should start using a special toothbrush for toddlers. This way, we help our child develop proper hygienic habits.

Toys

For the sake of a full psychomotor development of a child, its necessary to get him appropriate toys. They should help him further develop his senses – touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste (whistling toys, rattles, bath toys, colored wooden blocks, buckets, balls, rings on a rod, cloth toys, simple picture folding books, etc.)

We should be picky and prefer toys from quality materials – definitely put quality before price. Toys could also be everyday things that children see „in action“: a mug, a spoon, a box, a comb, etc. In these cases, make sure your child doesn’t hurt himself or break the object he is playing with.

Love is number one

If we want to develop proper speech in our child, we should talk to him a lot, appeal to his senses, sing to him, play with him, read books with him and help him discover the world around him. We help him make the most of his own potential.

We give him a chance to learn the basics of correct and content- rich speech. But even the best material equipment can’t replace an emotionally warm and loving environment.

Only such environment, where the child will feel loved and protected, will give him an opportunity to develop his abilities and his speech.